Iaia

Iaia of Cyzicus ("Marcia") was alive during the time of Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 B.C.). Marcia never married and remained a virgin all her life. She was a famous painter in her time and worked in Rome when Varro was young. She worked with fine paint brushes used by artists and also with the graving tool on ivory.

She painted images of women most of the time. She once painted a large panel picture of an old woman in Naples that was said to be beautiful. They were of finer quality than those of Sopolis and Dionysius, the most famous painters of her time.

Marcia painted as well as carved ivory figures. She was also said to have worked faster and earned more than her male counterpart artisans in her day.

She once did an outstanding self portrait using a mirror, that to others was without question a perfect image of her.

References

* Helen Gardner, Fred S. Kleiner, Christin J. Mamiya, "Gardner's Art Through the Ages", Thomas Wadsworth, 2004; ISBN 0155083155.
* Pliny the Elder, "Natural History", 35.40,147.L
* Virginia Brown's translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Famous Women, pp 135 - 137; Harvard University Press, 2001; ISBN 0-674-01130-9
* Harris, Anne Sutherland and Linda Nochlin, "Women Artists: 1550-1950", Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Knopf, New York, 1976, pg. 23.